REAL-TIME PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MOBILE APPLICATION SYSTEM, METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM
A mobile application providing access to data stored within the content management system of a company.
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This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application 61/444,765 filed on Feb. 20, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThis disclosure relates generally to the field of sales and business development mobile applications and more specifically to the field of sales and business development mobile applications for professional services and product sales.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONMobile applications provide functionality available to users over handheld devices, such as smartphones or PDAs. And for many users, particularly those in the fields of sales or legal services, having specific information readily available during a client interaction is critical.
SUMMARYA mobile application providing access to data stored within the content management system of a company.
The features, natures, and advantages of the disclosed subject matter may become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference characters identify correspondingly throughout and wherein:
The following description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made for the purpose of describing the general principles of the present disclosure. The scope of the present disclosure should be determined with reference to the claims. And although described with reference to the targeted distribution of a mobile advertisement over a mobile network, a person skilled in the art could apply the principles discussed herein to various networks and various forms of mobile advertisements.
Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated in the drawings, like numbers being used to refer to like and corresponding parts of the various drawings.
In accordance with the present disclosure, a mobile application is presented which provides secure access to data and information thereby offering a competitive advantage in a sales situation. And although described with reference to the legal industry, various embodiments of the disclosed subject matter may be applied to any field requiring company specific data in real time—such as accounting firms. Other systems, methods, features, and advantages here provided will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following Figures and description.
The following disclosure relates to a mobile application that provides secure access to data and information that is already collected and stored, within a company or organization's document management or content management system, which may be used for the purpose of driving sales and business development efforts. The mobile application disclosed provides a distinct competitive advantage by having limited, yet critical information that is needed to increase sales and business development efforts ‘at the ready’ to convey to potential clients.
The disclosed subject matter may allow a business, such as a law firm, to gain a competitive edge over another through the use of a client-facing application. A primary benefit of the mobile application would be its use by lawyers to drive business development by lawyers. However, this disclosure provides much more than a useful mobile application for lawyers; it is a mobile application that may be used to drive sales and increase revenue across many industries.
Most law firms have a sophisticated document/content management system (DMS/CMS) as well as some type of client relationship management system (CRM). Further, it is highly likely that most law firms also have some type of experience database and proposal preparation system that stores information such as: descriptions of each practice within the firm, examples of successful litigation matters, representative client lists, examples of deals done by the firm—to name a few categories of firm information. Additionally, the client relationship management system may have the ability to track the following information at the client level: who knows whom, opportunities at the client level, activities done with the client such as invitations to events, dinners, etc.
Often, each time a lawyer receives an RFP or is asked to submit materials on experience in a particular area, the marketing department or another designated individual of that firm consults with the lawyer and either prepares new material or utilizes content that may be previously stored in the firm's DMS/CMS and CRM systems. This usually results in either a PDF or a printed set of materials the firm uses for marketing purposes and often is made available to the public on the firm's website. In order to develop new business and expand existing business, lawyers may need to use this type of information. However, other types of confidential information may be needed that is not publicly available for the purposes of business development.
In the world of sales and business development, time is of the essence. There are often limited windows of opportunity when a sale can be closed quickly and effectively by having the right information at the right time. The amount of time it takes one person to meet with a client and return to the office or make a call to obtain necessary information for the sale could result in a missed opportunity. One of the most significant non-financially related or motivated business development challenges for law firms (or any sales culture) is the need to readily arm the lawyers and/or advisors with current and accurate information about the firm's experience to enable them to sell the firm's services, regardless of the place, time or environment.
The present disclosure provides a mobile application that provides secure real-time access to data and information that is collected and stored within a company or organization's document management or content management system, and may be used for the purpose of obtaining a competitive position and ultimately closing a sale, thereby increasing revenue. For the purpose of this disclosure, Professional Services shall include law firms and accounting firms. However, the application disclosed is not limited to these services as this type of mobile application may be scaled to other verticals that employ a sales force to drive sales and increase revenue.
Because the disclosed the mobile application is fully customizable depending on need, each design/display will be different. Thus, the mobile application is completely customizable depending on the company or organization's sales or business development goals and strategies. Thus, the examples shown in the figures are merely representative of the types of information the mobile application may provide. And although the description and figures provided relate to the legal/Professional Services Industry, this mobile application may also be of use in the Energy/Oil & Gas/Oilfield Services and Pulp and Paper/Fine Paper Sales verticals for example.
The disclosed mobile application solves the problem of not having complete and/or competitive information ‘at the ready’ to facilitate closing a sale or to further an organizations business development strategies. The mobile application may be used on any smartphone, including the iPhone, iPad or any mobile device or Smartphone with similar functionalities. In order to accommodate certain types of smartphones, such as a Blackberry, the application would be developed as a “movi”. Since the content needed to make mobile application useful will be stored on the company or organization's server, for security purposes the company or organization will deliver the mobile application to users along with a secure id that is needed to access the data behind the mobile application.
The disclosed mobile application provides critical information ‘at the ready’ to close a sale or to further business development strategies. This information includes, but is not limited to:
Legal Industry—non-traditional sales environment
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- Representative clients (identifiable by industry, geography, type of work handled)
- For transactional practices, experience may include, but is not limited to:
- Deal flow and value
- Value
- By deal type
- M&A
- 144A
- Finance
- Etc
- Deal flow and value
- For litigation/advocacy practices, it may include, but is not limited to:
- Experience
- By type of litigation
- By Court
- By result type
- Verdict amount
- Summary judgment
- Settlement
- Arbitration
- Etc.
- Experience
- Talking Points—“FastInfo”
- Brief bullets that describe what differentiates the practice from competitors and provides other brief facts
- News feed—ability to input client names to track via RSS feed
- Cross-development—“xSell”—links to other practices that contain it or like information needed to effectively sell the practice.
Traditional Sales Environment—depends on industry and need. The following industry examples are described for illustrative purposes.
Pulp and Paper—fine paper sales - Inventory by Mill
- Brands
- Colors
- Sizes
- Basis weight
- Finish
- Manufacturing minimum
- Local Inventory
- Brand
- Size
- Color
- Basis weight
- Finish
- Amount in stock
- Amount on order
- Due to arrive
- Shipping Schedule By Mill and by Brand
-
- Well Data
- Drill type
- Straight
- Horizontal
- Directional
- Location
- Target Sand
- Target Formation
- Drill type
- Service Line (customizable by company offerings)
- Company Experience
- Engineer
- Number of wells
- Drilling methods
- Engineer
- Well Data
The following description and figures are used to show both the functionality and operation of the disclosed mobile application and various graphical interface display capabilities.
The disclosed application provides a variety of information to the user based on selections the user makes—thus the user is able to find the information needed for the development of a particular client.
The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosed subject matter. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without the use of the innovative faculty. Thus, the subject matter is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
Claims
1. A mobile application, comprising:
- a downloadable software program providing access to data stored within the content management system of a company.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 21, 2012
Publication Date: Aug 23, 2012
Applicant: Gravit Consulting, LLC (Austin, TX)
Inventor: Aleisha Gravit (Great Falls, VA)
Application Number: 13/401,778
International Classification: G06F 17/30 (20060101);